After staying away from ads ever since ChatGPT went public in 2022, OpenAI has now revealed plans to introduce advertisements into ChatGPT for the first time. The company announced that it will begin testing ads in the coming weeks, initially targeting logged-in adult users in the United States on the free tier and the newly expanded $8-per-month ChatGPT Go subscription plan.
Ads will appear in a clearly labeled, separate box directly below ChatGPT’s organic response to a user’s query. For instance, if someone asks for dinner party recipe ideas, the AI will provide its standard answer, followed by a sponsored suggestion for relevant products like a specific hot sauce or grocery items. OpenAI assures that ads will not influence or alter the chatbot’s core responses, which will remain driven solely by what’s “objectively useful.”
Ads in ChatGPT: How will it work
Users will have controls, including the ability to learn why they see a particular ad, dismiss it, report issues, and turn off personalisation (which uses aggregate conversation context and some user data for relevance, but not individual conversations). The company has committed to strong privacy protections: no selling of user data, no exposure of conversations to advertisers, and no ads based on age, location, or interests in a targeted way.
Ads will be excluded for users under 18 (or predicted to be) and near sensitive topics such as health, mental health, or politics. OpenAI is also exploring more interactive formats, such as conversational ads, where users can ask follow-up questions directly within the sponsored section to aid purchase decisions.
ChatGPT ads: How will it impact users
The move to run ads in ChatGPT diversifies OpenAI’s revenue beyond its current streams, which include enterprise subscriptions (ChatGPT Enterprise), developer API usage (e.g., GPT-5.2 API pricing), individual paid plans (ChatGPT Plus at $20/month, Pro at $200/month), and partnerships like the 2024 Apple integration.
The company reported around $4.3 billion in revenue for the first half of 2025, with CEO Sam Altman projecting an annualised run rate exceeding $20 billion in 2026. Ads represent a way to monetise the vast majority of non-paying users while supporting broader access to AI. Importantly, higher-tier subscribers — ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise — will remain completely ad-free. The new ChatGPT Go plan, rolled out globally on January 16 (previously launched in India in 2025), offers expanded features like longer memory and more image generation at a lower price point, but includes ads.
Fidji Simo, CEO of Applications at OpenAI, stated, “People trust ChatGPT for many important and personal tasks, so as we introduce ads, it’s crucial we preserve what makes ChatGPT valuable in the first place. That means you need to trust that ChatGPT’s responses are driven by what’s objectively useful, never by advertising.”
